THE SCREW-PROPELLER. 103 



built forty-five feel in length, and fitted with engine and two propellers. She was named 

 the Francis B. Otjdeti. "The result of her first trial went far beyond his most sanguine 

 expectations. No sooner were the engines put at full speed, than she shot ahead at the 

 rate of more than ten miles an hour/' Afterwards she towed a schooner of 140 tons burden 

 at seven miles an hour. The next experiment was made in the presence of the Lords of 

 the Admiralty, and they were minute in their inspection, Ericsson felt confident that 

 they were convinced, and would soon order the construction of a war-vessel on the new 

 principle. In this, however, he was disappointed, though he had given them a tolerably 

 good proof of its value by towing their barge at the rate of ten miles an hour, for a 

 considerable distance. Scientific theorists reported against it, and said that a ship thus 

 propelled would be unsteerable. Lindsay records how Admiral Beechey, one of the old 

 school, in 1850, stated that "he did not believe that the navy of the future the Royal 

 Navy ever could consist of steamers ! Nor could he endure iron ships." 



THE " HOHE11T F. STOCKTON." 



While Ericsson was thus employed, Mr. Thomas Pettit Smith, who, on the 31st May, 

 1836, had taken out a patent for a " sort of screw or ' worm/ made to revolve rapidly 

 under water in a recess or open space formed in that part of the after-part of the vessel 

 commonly called the dead rising or dead wood of the stern," was experimenting, and the 

 following year exhibited it in practical form in a small vessel. It appeared to several 

 gentlemen so satisfactory that a company was formed in July, 1839, to purchase the patent. 

 It was now applied to a vessel called the Archimedes, the burden of which was 237 tons, 

 and although her speed was somewhat less than Ericsson's vessel, the trial was undeniably 

 satisfactory, more especially as it was obvious that her engine was really not large enough 

 for a propeller of the size. In her next trials against the Widgeon, the fastest paddle-wheel 

 steamer then running between Dover and Calais, the success of the screw might be regarded 

 as an established fact. The Archimedes laboured under the disadvantage of having ten 

 horse-power less steam, while her burden was seventy-five tons more ; she had the advantage 

 of carrying more sail. On the first three trials the IJ'idgcon had a very slight advantage, 

 in spite of her superior steam-power and smaller tonnage, while on the last two the 



